Some European Countries Take Firmer Stance Against Anti-Israel NGOs A glimmer of hope in the darkness. Joseph Puder

The recent terrorist attacks in Europe by Muslim jihadists using car (truck) ramming’s and knifings to kill innocent civilian bystanders may have jolted some European governments to recognize that Israel is indeed “the canary in the coal mine.” The car ramming’s and knifings first occurred in Israel with Palestinian jihadists using this method to kill Israelis. It has been emulated by Jihadists in France, Germany, and Britain. It was however, the regime of Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and Hamas in Gaza who have used their mosques, media, and educational systems to spread incitement and hate of non-Muslims, particularly Israelis and Jews, in what amounts to blatant anti-Semitism.

Some European governments have finally awakened to the reality that their charities, particularly those funding Palestinian NGO’s, are in essence supporting incitement to hate and anti-Semitism. The Swiss parliament decided to change the country’s policy with regards to funding Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) that are involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The new policy would bar funding of organizations that participate in incitement and spreading of hate propaganda, racism and anti-Semitism. The measure was introduced by Christian Imark, a National Council deputy from the conservative Swiss People’s Party. It passed 111 – 78.

The Swiss Council of States or Upper House of Parliament passed the resolution with modest modifications of the bill introduced by MP Christian Imark, which was previously approved in the Lower House of Parliament three months ago. The passing of the bill will result in ending official Swiss funding of NGO’s that participate in incitement against Israel, and use anti-Semitic language

Professor Gerald Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem based NGO, which analyzes and reports on the output of the international NGO community, had this to say…This decision marks a fundamental change. When we first approached the Swiss government officials, including the Foreign Ministry, their response was denial. For the first time now, a European country has passed legislation to end funding for NGO’s that are vehicles for incitement and hate speech, specifically including anti-Semitism.”

NGO Monitor has shown that the primary channel for Swiss funding of NGOs involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict is the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, which is a joint funding mechanism involving the governments of Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. The Secretariat has funded over 40 Israeli and Palestinian NGO’s, including groups that engage in “lawfare” against Israeli officials and companies that do business with Israel. It also funded NGO’s that promote Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) campaigns against Israel, and exploit the false analogy of “apartheid” to vilify Israel in what amounts to anti-Semitic propaganda. The NGO Monitor has moreover, documented the extent to which the Secretariat disbursed over $14 million to NGO’s in 2014-2016 that supported the BDS campaigns. For example, 15 out 24 core funding recipients, and 11 out 20 project funding grantees promoted BDS.

The newly enacted Swiss law has set the criteria against funding NGO’s that have ties to terrorist organizations or promote anti-Semitism, as well as those organizations with connections to BDS. The net result of the law is likely to impact on anti-Israel Palestinian organizations such as Badil, which is the Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, based in Jerusalem. Badil (pronounced in Arabic as Badeel, meaning Alternative) supports Palestinian “right of return” and refuses to recognize Israel as the Jewish state. Badil is also engaged in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda.

Addameer (Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association), founded in 1992, is a Palestinian NGO that defends murderous terrorists. In an April 17, 2015 release, it stated that “Israel is committing nothing short of a modern-day ethnic cleansing before our eyes.” It refers to the Israel Defense Force (IDF) as the “Israeli Occupying Forces,” and accuses Israel of “collective punishment,” “war crimes,” and a “policy of using Palestinian prisoners as pawns to achieve political and military gains.”

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), founded in 1995, is based in Gaza. It is hardly an unbiased Palestinian “human rights” NGO, portraying Israel as an “apartheid” state. It regularly denies the existence of terrorism against Israeli civilians, depicting a narrative of Palestinian suffering. Raji Sourani, founder and director of PCHR, was convicted of being a member of the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and an anti-Israel Palestinian-Christian propagandist, formed Miftah in 1998. She is using her “Christian” but not her radical background to appeal to the West. Miftah seeks to disseminate the Palestinian narrative and influence policy legislation. Miftah received $330,000 from the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat in 2014-16. Canada terminated its grants to Miftah in 2014. Miftah has accused Israel of “massacres,” “Apartheid” and “summary execution of Palestinian youth.” Another libelous false accusation by Miftah has been that Israel is “Judaizing Jerusalem.” Ashrawi has also addressed the notoriously anti-Semitic UN Durban Conference in 2001, where she charged that Palestinians were “a nation in captivity held hostage to an ongoing Nakba, and a pervasive expression of persistent colonialism, apartheid, racism and victimization.”

Denmark, like Switzerland, took the first step in ending funding to Palestinian NGO’s who glorify convicted terrorists. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported (June 4, 2017) that the Danish government cancelled aid to a Palestinian NGO following a PMW report on its glorification of terrorists. Palestinian NGO Women’s Technical Affairs Committee (WTAC) named a youth and women’s center in the town of Burqa after a terrorist murderer named Dalal Mughrabi, who led a bus hijacking and the murder of 37 Israeli civilians, including 12 children, in 1978.

On June 2, 2017, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsson stated, “I am outraged that the Palestinian NGO WATC, which claims to work for human rights, has not only glorified a terrorist but also abused the trust of a generous people like the Danish…It is completely unacceptable and I can’t distance myself strongly enough from it. Denmark and Danish tax kroner must, under no circumstances, be used for anything that glorifies or promotes terrorists in any way. Therefore, we will now also demand that WACT return Danish aid.”

A Danish Foreign Ministry press release stated that the ministry has ended cooperation with the center because it “withheld crucial information” about the naming of the women’s center “after a female Palestinian terrorist.” Similar condemnations were issued by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende.

The governments of Switzerland, Denmark and Norway have finally recognized that they have been duped by numerous Palestinian NGO’s. These NGO’s have shown that behind their innocuous names and advertising façades lurks hateful missions to do harm to Israel and Jewish people. NGO’s like Miftah have engaged in vicious anti-Semitic incitement that ends up in violence and death. The actions of the above mentioned European governments is a welcomed sign that they are waking up to the evil of Islamic jihadism, be it against Europe or Israel.